Downtime Dieting and System Reset

I'm sure many of you have read about “deload weeks” If you have not I will explain.

A deload week is a week where you either use half the weight you normally work out with, half the sets (or both) or take a week off completely. Deload weeks are to give your body a chance to recover, so when you're back at it you can perform stronger from the slight break.

What I'm going to talk about here is deload dieting. This is where you step outside of the normal diet and let your body eat some normal foods again, so when you go back to dieting you can get some better results. We aren't talking about totally junking up here, but one cheat meal a day is fine.

It's perfectly fine to lower your protein intake here, as well as eat primarily only when you are hungry. This usually equates to 4-5 times a day for me. Adding things like dairy back into the diet is OK.

The biggest thing you want to do here is KEEP IT SIMPLE. Bodybuilders always want to over complicate shit and become their own worst enemies.

This is a diet for someone who has been hard at a fat loss diet for a long time, at least 12 weeks or more. If you're not lean and can't see your abs, this isn't for you. So this would be something typical for myself. I am currently 218 lbs and single digit bodyfat (probably 7%).

Do not worry about mixing carbs and fats on this sort of diet. This diet is just an example of something I would do myself, at my stats. During this time I will go back to the basics in the gym. Sometimes going back to the basics kickstarts new progress. My workouts have been 1 bodypart a day, get in and get out!! Each exercise is 3 sets only, usually 3-4 different exercises per muscle group. This allows me to #1- focus solely on one bodypart and not rush through a workout to make sure I don't miss anything, and #2- not tax my central nervous system as bad.

I may even go more basic and do a 5×5 routine in the near future. Mon/Wed/Fri 5×5 of either bench, leg press or squat, deadlift. The entire workout to focus on solely doing 5 sets of 5, not rushing anything and putting 100% into those sets. I often find the more basic I can get, the better the results. Obviously this is nothing I would do continuously, but taking 2 steps back to take another step forward is the story of my life with the gym now.

The point is to give yourself a break, dieting and training. Briefly go back to something you may have done in the beginning when you were smaller, it just may work.

Comments

Your talking about homeostasis here and manipulating the negative feedback mechanism produced bythe body when it is being exposed to the same thing over and over,
then changing it up,
even if the “units” are lower a slight change can indeed
“RESET”
a system that has gotten used to the same macros,
like what I always say
“the body’s a bitch, doesn’t love what it receives”
and this post is perfect to describe how to tell the body what it’s missing, like how you would tamper your affections to your girl.
I love this post, thanks Doe